Alabama's aborted execution was botched and bloody -lawyer

(Reuters) - Alabama's aborted execution last week of an inmate with severely compromised veins led to more than 10 puncture wounds in the man from failed needle placements and left behind a bloodied death chamber, his lawyer said.

On Thursday, Alabama tried to execute by lethal injection convicted murderer Doyle Hamm, 61, who has spent more than half his life on death row. After about 2-1/2 hours of trying, the state called it off because of issues with Hamm's veins it said could not be resolved before a death warrant expired at midnight.

“It was a gory, botched execution. They gave up when they could not find a vein,” Bernard Harcourt, a professor at the Columbia University Law School who is representing Hamm, said by email on Sunday.

The execution has come under federal court review, with a U.S. district judge calling for the state to preserve evidence, including the clothes Hamm was wearing.

Alabama Department of Corrections officials were not immediately available to respond to Harcourt's comments.

States including Oklahoma and Arizona have also conducted botched executions that raised questions about death chamber protocols in the 31 U.S. states with the capital punishment.  

Source: Yahoo News